armed with a spray can soul
by PamelaTurpin
Summary: because you never forget someone you loved enough to willingly let your life slip away. Modern AU. Percabeth.
1. if you love me, won't you let me know?

A/N: Dedicated to my friend Sabrina, mostly because I'm chatting with her as I'm writing this. o.o okay, so here we go. I don't think I've written a fic in quite some time, so excuse any signs of poor grammer, cliche moments, and Mary Sues.

* * *

"So, what's your name?"

He smiled cockily, waiting for an answer. Not that he didn't know her name, of course. Being _the_ Percy Jackson, he knew just about everything and everyone in the City, and he made it his business to get into all sorts of happenings. Hot, famous, and loaded with cash, he was the kind of person that popped up in the Celebrities section of the New York Times on a weekly basis. He was a businessman, sure. But he was also the kind of guy to hit the clubs after eleven o'clock and lasted till 2 am before taking some chick home for the night.

The girl pushed her strawberry blonde strands from her face. "Annabeth Chase, sir."

"Mm. And why are you applying for this position?"

He made the word _position_ sound dirty, Annabeth thought. And to think she was applying to be his assistant.

_Shit._

"To be honest, my family's in a crisis. My father just died, and I have to support my family, seeing as my mother's gone crazy..." Annabeth gave a polite smile. She never did like the whole pity thing, but she needed this job. Badly. If she didn't get this job, they might even have to live off on food stamps. Her father never did quite save up money.

Percy had seen lots of these kinds of girls. Well, the applicants were usually separated into three times - number one being the fangirl groups who were quite happy enough to just meet him in person and get to have a whole conversation, number two being the geeky ones who actually wanted the job not because of him, and number three being...the Annabeths.

She was quite pretty too, in the non-leggy blonde way. There was no way Percy Jackson would ever take in someone ugly as his assistant. At least she passed the test.

He grinned mockingly. "Okay, _Ms. _Chase, you get the job."

"No shit."

"Yes shit." He could get used to this. "Report in for work on Monday morning. I'll assign you your desk and get someone to show you around."

Annabeth smiled at him, really smiled, maybe for the first time in weeks. "Thanks, Mr. Jackson. I'm sure I'll live up to your expectations."

"I'm sure you will," he replied, and her cheeks flushed a pretty pink, detecting the innuendo.

* * *

_Annabeth, he thought._

_"Don't leave me. God. Please." Her eyes were searching for any signs of life, but they were slipping away, just like the sunshine from the sky. "You promised, Percy. Please." Her voice was in pain now. "Hades! Shit."_

_He could only look at her to see her broken face, her broken soul, and his heart shattered into a million pieces. He was falling, the pieces were falling, and they glittered like diamonds for a millisecond to only shatter once more to the beat of her pulse. _

_"Try three times," he managed to croak. "I love you, Anne."_

_and those eyes just became black whirlpools, reflecting Annabeth's tearful face_

_and_

_she mouthed three words back _

_every teardrop was _

_a waterfall._

* * *

Percy was totally pissed off when it turned out that the 'special place' Rachel was taking him was Grover's house. Well, more like Grover's house in full _partay_ mood. He really wasn't in the mood, truth be told. Like, seriously, a few shots and tequila isn't the answer to everything, but his friends seemed to believe that such a myth was true. Well, fuck them. He's consumed way too much alcohol in his life to even qualify to say this, but alcohol sucks.

(Only at the moment, anyways. um, lol.)

Annabeth Chase was driving him absolutely fucking _crazy._

He wasn't only being driven by the know-it-all things she did all the time - the annoying grammer checks over every damn thing, random facts about architecture, and enough criteria to even make a rabbi feel depressed...those were only on the top of the list. She was so much smarter and sharper than he was that sometimes, he thought that he should be the assistant instead and appear at press conferences, or something. Hot guys always succeeded in business. (Not really, but you know what I mean.)

No, it was the way her strawberry blonde hair swept over her shoulders, the way her stormy eyes looked so persistently at him, matching the sprinkle of freckles across her nose - she was beautiful, and not in the blonde slut way. And sometimes he could just barely - just barely - see down her shirt. He was still a guy, after all. You know. You can't really blame him.

And she didn't know she had such an effect on him. She probably just thought of herself as the intimidating smart ass, the girl to slap him out of his daydreams.

But he also had the feeling that he had met her before.

Those grey eyes would be pretty hard to forget.

* * *

A/N: Okay, my mind is totally dead. Got to pass out. Yep, multi-chapter story it is. I never can continue on with these things but hey, you never know.

I know this was really short. Like I said, I can never get my mind to work past 10pm. Don't blame me.

kisses xoxo

probably going to do first person povs from next time, so...review? Reviews are like the fuel to my writing soul. xD

you can even just say something like FUCK YEAH HI THERE YOU.

bye.


	2. lights will guide you home

**A/N: so, how does this completely 'random' chapter have anything to do with the chapter before? mostly because, well. can't say yet. but just want to let you guys know that I'm not going crazy, lol - I have a reason for everything I do.**

* * *

let's go back to the beginning - a very good place to start.

* * *

For her seventh birthday, Annabeth asked for a friend as her present.

She wasn't stupid. She wasn't ignorant. She was bright for a kid her age, except for that her dylexia always seemed to cloud her teachers' eyes. Her mind gears spinned much faster than her classmates, and her parents had realized that long ago. That was the main reason they were the ones that were the most surprised when she told them.

"But, Annabeth -" her stepmother, Clara, had already started spluttering. She loved Annabeth more than enough for a stepmother, but sometimes, just sometimes, in the corner of her mind, she thought her a freak. Just a little bit.

Frederick stopped her and looked at his daughter very curiously. "Are you sure, Annie? Is this your birthday wish?"

She grinned up at her daddy.

He scratched his beard, not sure what to do. "And you want this wish to come true very much, right?"

"Of course, daddy. That's why I asked for it."

"Don't talk back to your father," Clara said. "But Annabeth, this is going to be very hard. We don't know if we can fulfill your request."

Annabeth looked at her lap and unconciously picked at her food. Matthew spit out his food into his bowl, and started gurgling at his mother, while Bobby picked the spit-out food and stuffed them down his mouth.

And that was where the conversation ended, really. Frederick just decided to not bring it up that night at the dinner table, and Clara was too busy scolding Bobby while cleaning up after Matthew. Annabeth just took a few more bites at her mashed potatoes and excused herself to bed.

Later, when all the children were safely tucked into their beds, Clara brought it up with her husband.

"What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "I mean, what are you going to do about _her_ little wish?"

He took a sip of his tea. "Well, it is going to be her birthday. And we always fulfill her wishes every year, don't we?"

"But this time -"

"But this time is special, I know. Nobody said it couldn't be done, though. We could - we could adopt a kid." He smiled. "Yeah, that would be a good solution. We would adopt a kid her age, and then they could live with us, in the guest room next to hers, and -"

"You're going crazy again. Maybe I should get some asprin."

Frederick smiled, as if there was a joke he was keeping to himself. "No, I'm not, Clara. It could be done. I have a friend who donates to this orphanage, and she could take me there, show me around, and it would be done."

Clara stared at him. It didn't need to be said audibly that she already had enough on her hands with the twins, and Annabeth wasn't exactly a little angel, either. There had been many happenings since she married Frederick and met his daughter - many that she wasn't even sure of herself. The memories were always clouded, always mysterious, but they were always related to Annabeth.

And adopting another kid? That was just complete ruddish. She already worked hard enough to support the family, to keep it in once piece - and now some kid (whose parents threw away, just like that, no doubt) was going to jump right in? They weren't exactly rich, either.

Maybe she should just get Annabeth an iPad or something to shut her up.

And her husband read her thoughts perfectly.

"Look." He gripped his mug tighter. "I know this is a ridiculous idea. It's totally out of this world, but...it's our only perfect solution."

"So?"

"One day, she's going to find out that you aren't her real mother, and that we kept it a secret from her for all these years. I want to do everything possible so that when she does find out, she can remember that we loved her, and we did everything in our power to make her happy; that we are really her parents, not completely by blood, but by love. Give me a chance. I want to make up to her in advance, Clara. I really do."

Clara presses her lips together.

"Fine."

That little girl better had remember, in ten years, twenty years, thirty years, that her stepmother had sacrificed a lot for her.

A _lot._

* * *

Frederick got in touch with Sally, the friend, and told her about the situation. She didn't sound very surprised, or maybe it was just his imagination - he was way too frantic trying to get the story out at once to notice. Sally had replied quite nicely, saying that he could go over tomorrow, and she would show him around. It was more than he could have hoped for.

The next day, he had gotten himself all shaved and in a proper suit, and went to the orphanage. St. Mungos Orphanage, it said. (HARRY POTTER FTW, lol.) Sally was there waiting for him. They had been classmates in college. She smiled at him pleasantly, and then led him into the place.

"So, why did you decide to donate this orphanage?" He said, after they had greeted each other warmly.

Sally Jackson had been originally one of the poorest students at their college. She had gotten in on a scholarship, and was commonly looked down at from the other students, who were mostly from rich families. Back in the day, only families with good income could support college students, and Sally was a joke to all of them, a community project.

Later, she had started up a sweets store chain, and word got around quick. Soon enough she was one of the most rich females in America - after all of the actors and singers and Oprah, of course. She had settled down with a husband, a chef at a five-star hotel. Nobody could have predicted that she would donate astonishing amounts of money to some unknown orphanage in San Francisco.

She nodded, as if she had been asked this question a million times by now. And maybe she had been. "People don't need reasons to do things, Frederick." She looked at him, still smiling. "If I get all this money, I should share to the poor. I mean, it's not like I donate to UNICEF, too."

He wasn't that curious to continue on prodding her, so he just nodded slightly and followed her into the building. It was quite nice for an orphanage - that money didn't go to waste after all.

She had introduced him to the people working there, and then took him around to make the rounds and look at the children.

"What kind of child do you want?"

Frederick couldn't help but feel wrong that the children were like teddy bears lining on the store shelves, and not treated like human beings, but they couldn't help it. "I'll just look around, thanks."

There were all sorts of children, from infants to preteens, and some were having fun, while some just sat around on couches and read, or coloured. It was like a madhouse, and even an army couldn't have controlled the kids. All of them were cute and seemed like nice children - or, the majority did. They were children that had been left alone by their parents, and whether or not their parents were against their will, they had been hurt deeply. It wasn't their fault that some would turn into troubled children.

A boy caught his eye, all of a sudden, just as he was delving into his thoughts.

If a child could be handsome, this boy was. His raven black hair was messy, as if he had just gotten up, but it was scruffed in a cute way. His eyes were the perfect shade of grassy green, searching the room, as if he could one day see something else than what was there in reality. He was one of the kids who were sitting around, but he wasn't reading, he was just playing by himself.

Sally seemed to have seen him look at that boy, and he felt her tense next to him, for some reason.

"What's the name of that boy in the corner?"

"Which one?" She said, and he could detect that she was lying.

"The black haired one, with the green eyes - the one playing with the toy truck."

"Oh," Sally said. "That's Percy."

He waited.

"And he's seven years old. Same as Annabeth, I believe. Shall we move on?"

Frederick stood his ground. "Maybe I could talk with Percy?"

She didn't reply, and he went up to Percy. His green eyes looked up, and he started to stand up, feeling a bit frightened, before Frederick smiled at him.

"Hi. What's your name, buddy?"

* * *

After a week of pondering between the choices, they had decided to take in Percy as Annabeth's birthday gift. It felt kind of wrong, but it was all they could do. And Frederick thought it was worth it. When they told Sally, she just smiled politely. Frederick had decided to ignore the odd expression and started on signing the papers.

But there was a story they hadn't known, one that Sally had kept a secret for so long, and one that Sally decided to take with her to her grave.

* * *

_It wasn't a cold, snowy night when the woman had brought her child to the orphanage. That was only a cliche myth - it wasn't as if all orphans, or to-be orphans, were born in the winter season. This little boy, with a wisp of fair hair on the top of his head, was born on a warm day in August._

_If it wasn't for the way he gurgled in her arms and smiled that baby smile at her all the time, she would have given him up earlier. She knew she couldn't keep a child - not when she was still in college, and on a scholarship for god's sakes. And the child's father..._

_He was no help at all. And she didn't expect him to care._

_She hated the last days, and it was when the child had finally started to realize that he was now on this earth and that he couldn't go back, and that he was going to stay here for a very, very long time. He was so beautiful, and he looked just like his father, with his green eyes and that warm grin. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing._

_Scuttling quickly down the streets, she was holding her child, hidden in a blanket. In it was a piece of paper she had typed out, with his name and birthday and letters of thanks in advance and all about him that she could ever find out in two weeks. Before her tears would start to stream down her face, she settled the child down at the top of the stairs and left._

_Or, more like, she had hidden behind the bushes, watching her child, making sure he didn't come to any harm on that warm August night._

_And the next morning, a cheerful looking woman had opened up the door, saw the baby, and took him in without a word._

_She should have been happy, but she felt something else. Something much more painful._

* * *

Frederick and Clara had went to get 'her present', as Annabeth knew it, and the babysitter could hardly keep the children quiet when they were so happy and excited.

"Calm - down -" Miranda said, grabbing the twins, one in each arm, to stop them from breaking the lava lamp. "Annabeth! Can't you get your brothers calm?"

"Well, you're the babysitter, Miranda," she said, a youthful smirk on her face.

"We're not babies!" Bobby complained as he wriggled against Miranda's firm grip.

"Yeah, we're not babies!"

The twins escaped from her arms and started jumping up and down on the carpet, making thundering noises as they screamed. Miranda collapsed in a chair.

"God, your brothers are a handful," she said to Annabeth, who was just grinning to herself, sitting on the sofa. "It's not even their present."

"It is my birthday, though, and we had cake, which usually gets them all jumpy."

"Sugar equals the Chase twins full in divide-and-conquer mode, I know," she watched as the twins started attacking a large teddy bear.

It wasn't that far, though, before the parents would come home with _him_, though. Annabeth hoped he wouldn't care that he was her gift.

* * *

He's here.

And Annabeth is absolutely speechless.

He's _beautiful._ She's seven years old, yes, but she knows that much. Looking at him made her feel so self-conscious.

He also looked frightened, which wasn't very surprising, seeing as he was in a stranger's house, far away from the home he's been used to almost since ever he was born, and everything was so clean and had a _home _kind of feeling to it. The two adults didn't do much to make him feel better at all, anyways.

"Percy, meet Annabeth." Clara said gently. Annabeth looked at her 'mother' and stuck out a hand for him to shake.

"Welcome, Percy," she said all politely yet warm, like her mother did whenever they had house parties. "Welcome to your new home. I'm Annabeth, Annabeth Chase, and I'm going to show you around the house and be your friend and -"

He looked at the blonde girl, right in the eyes, and she shut up for some reason.

He didn't say anything for the rest of the time, just kind of floated around the place, and Annabeth showed him to his room - the guest room right next to hers, which had already been 'reformed' into his room.

"How do you like this?" She sat down on his bed, and gestured for him to sit next to here. "Do you like this house?"

He shrugged.

"I know this is very weird to you, Percy, but we're all going to help you out, and I'm going to be your friend. Or, you're going to be my friend, but it's all the same. "She grinned. "Maybe soon you'll come to school with me, and I can help you with your homework, since that's kind of the only thing I'm good at. I know you're not a girl, but we can still be friends, right?"

Silence.

"Ookay," Annabeth said plainly, but nobody could have ignored that disappointed look on her face. "Well, you can use the bathroom right next door, and I'll go to bed."

He nodded.

"Goodnight," she said as she closed the door, and it was after when she closed the door that he whispered one word.

_"Annabeth."_

__There was just something about that grey-eyed girl that made him feel lost and yet found at the same time.

* * *

**AGHHHHHHH FOR THE CLICHENESSSSS**

**but hey, who doesn't like a young Percy and Annabeth?**

**don't worry, everything's going to work out. Percy can be quite the charmer.**

**REVIEW! heh, you guys are the fuel to my soul, the angels to my despair. this was a bit long, but hey, I kind of feel good after writing this.**

**don't ask.**

**I'm probably going to do 1st person POV, don't worry. just keep on forgetting to switch into I-my-me mode.**

**toodles!**


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